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Ben Affleck has played virtually every style of loser lug on-screen, each lug better than the last. Even when his character appears to be in charge, like his CIA agent in "Argo," you're not surprised that the Americans he's supposed to be saving in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis are nervous. Now in "Gone Girl," Affleck and director David Fincher conspire to give us Nick Dunne, one of those classic movie characters we love — the manipulated male. It's a strange fascination we have with men like Nick. They fall short of that old film cliché — men want to be them, women want to sleep with them. Because men don't want to be...

Related "State of Play" Articles

Ben Affleck has played virtually every style of loser lug on-screen, each lug better than the last.
Even when his character appears to be in charge, like his CIA agent in "Argo," you're not surprised that the Americans he's supposed to be...

Why the long face, Mr. Depp?
Perhaps because there’s no question “The Lone Ranger” is a catastrophe.
Produced for close to $250 million, the Johnny Depp-starring update of the old radio and television serial grossed a measly $29.4 million in its first...

Tonight, seven years after it first brought the series to these shores, BBC America will begin replaying the 2003 conspiracy-thriller miniseries "State of Play." It is a terrific work of television, with what seems now a superstar cast and crew, ...

Zac Efron is the latest victor, and Russell Crowe the victim, of youngsters' dominance at the box office.The Warner Bros. film "17 Again," starring "High School Musical" heartthrob Efron, was the decisive No. 1 this weekend with...

Acting couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are the latest owners of a California ranch house in the Pacific Palisades that has been capturing the imagination of A-listers since Gregory Peck bought it in 1947. The pair recently...

You never see him at any fancy movie premieres or making the rounds of the talent agencies. He hasn't turned up on any Hollywood power lists. But the 68-year-old Ed Mintz has quietly emerged as a key player in the ...

The long-awaited trailer for Paul Greengrass' long-delayed "Green Zone" has finally hit the Web. The action thriller, due out next spring, stars Matt Damon as a CIA operative trying to get to the bottom of the mess in Iraq. So ...

When I first read my colleagues Steven Zeitchik and Rachel Abramowitz's intriguing post about a new film where the male lead plays an "aging, alcoholic musician who mentors/is schooled by--and then finds romance with--a younger female star," I thought for ...

Having by now read all too many snarky -- not to mention pseudo-snarky -- stories detailing the saga of Kevin Smith getting bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight because he was, in large part, too overweight to comfortably fit into ...

Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 4 - April 10 in PDF format This week's TV Movies PRIME CHOICES SUNDAY When Mom heads back into the workforce, three suburban kids must assume childcare responsibilities for ...

Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 11 - 17 in PDF format This week's TV Movies GRIEF: Katie couric and the Muppets of "Seasame Street" in a new special, "When Families Grieve," about coping with ...

Ridley Scott is already talking about sequels to "Robin Hood," and considering the compelling scenes from the May 14 release, he may be right to consider this a rich new territory for his cinematic plunder. John Horn has a preview ...

The people who are closest to the world portrayed in a film are almost always the ones quickest to indulge in all sorts of nitpicking criticism of the film's depiction of that world. It's one reason why Hollywood probably has ...

Harry Potter has cast his biggest opening-weekend spell yet, thanks largely to fans who rushed to midnight screenings late Thursday. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" sold $125.2 million of tickets this weekend, according to an estimate from ...